CPU4 Blog

Razor Diamond back or Logitech MX518

2009-03-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

I'm and intensive computer user and use my computer, keyboard and mouse daily. And since I have a wireless mouse I need new batteries every week. That's why I am going to buy a wired mouse. Howhever there are soo many mice I can't even choose. So I did some research and came out with these two cheap and goood game mice. the Razer Diamondback and the Logitech MX815. So are some things I found:

General info

Both mices are greatly respected game mice from well known company's. The specs are actually quite the same:

	Razer Diamondback	Logitech MX 518
Reso.	1600 dpi	1600 dpi
Max. speed	1m/s	1m/s
Data processing rate	5,8 MP/s	5,8 MP/s
Maximum acceleratie	15g	15g
Lag	1 ms	1 ms
buttons	7*	8**
Sensor.	Agilent A3070	Agilent A3070

They both have the same sensor, max speedm resolution etc. so that shouldn't matter.

*2 of left side 2 on right side
** 2 buttons for on-the-fly sensivity

Razer Diamondback

As I read:
General
The Razer Diamondback is a small mouse for people with small hands or people who like to hold their mouse with their fingers(like me) and not the whole hand. It's a light weight mouse produced by a company specialised in gaming gear.

Ergonomics & Design
I also read the mouse is Ergonomically not the greatest which make is for some feel like a regular mouse. Howhever the light-weight, the 'rubber' coated buttons and the rubber side strips makes it such a great mouse. And the light is beautiful.

Logitech MX518

As I read: General
The Logitech MX518 is a big heavy mouse you use with your whole hand. This shouldn't be a problem since the ergonicaly the mouse should be good. The design however...
Ergonomic & Design
As I read a lot of people say the shape of the MX518 is way better than that from the Diamondback wich looks like it is. And as I said, I think the design is just plain ugly. It looks like a lapricon banged it up with a little bat. Than just put some small cheap looking buttons on it and done.

That was just a very quick overview on what I found and it maybe helps you decide a little easier ( or maybe harder, sorry). Right now I think I'll go with the Diamondback because I like the use my mouse with my fingers and lightwright mouses. And I just love the light :p When I got my new I will post the unboxing, a feature overlook and a 'review'.

Why don't you buy a Mac?

2009-03-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

Attention: this post has very little educational value and consist of ignorant facts and myths from both Macboy and PC. Don't take this post seriously. (However I do hate Apple and they will have to pay me to make me use an Apple product. With that said:
Okay, better to say it now then never. I hate Mac and the whole Apple company more than I hate Microsoft and all those big company's. Why? Because Apple is just to arrogant and don't have any dignity. They sell $700 dollar boxes full of electronic crap and sell it to brainless Macboys and girls. And Apple takes advantage of these people. I am not claiming that all Mac users are stupid, certainly not. But some just have to admit that the Mac isn't any better than a PC so just stop complaining and flaming on those youtube videos and blog posts.

As I was telling all that above to a friend of mine(A Macboy) he just started claiming and started nagging about how great the Mac is( Ugh, just the same crap every Macboy/girl says, do they have a cheatsheet or something hiden somewhere?). About how fast it is, how easy it it and how it never crashes and stuff and said that after I tried it I would agree.

So he invited me to his house to try it out. I started the Mac waited and waited just like any PC and then Woah! Mac OS X was there. So I asked: "Now show anything a PC can't do?".So he starting showing everything:

1. The windows manager is way cooler and easier!
- I can make a PC look like that...

2. Photoshop and other applications run faster on my 1.8Ghz Mac than on a 1.8Ghz PC
- Ok so I need faster processor to top with the Mac so I buy a Pc with Core2Quad @ 2.44Ghz that will cost me maybe $800 with a nice graphic card and 4gb RAM. And your Mac costs $2000 so what's the difference? Yes $1200.

3. Mac never crashes and always works.
- Than why would there be a support line? I'm pretty sure I can make the Mac crash and besides Linux doesn't crash either. So they are still even.

4. But uhm... Linux is hard and Mac is not.
(* is Macboy)
- Why is linux hard? It's just like any other OS.
* I heard it's hard to install thing on it.
- With Ubuntu Linux for example you have an application wich shows a huge list with all applications for Linux than click install and done. If it's not on that list just type 'apt-get install ' to install anything. Nothing different than Mac OS X.

5. Mac dominates the graphic design world. We have for example Final Cut!
- That was ages ago, sure there are ignorant designer that think you can only design on a Mac. Oh wait, I'm a designer and I don't have a Mac. And about the Final Cut, congratz you have an Application we don't have... Not really a big deal because we got 1000's of quality Pc only wares.

Hmmm, he didn't really convinced me to buy a Mac... Why would I buy a $2000 dollar machine that can do less than a $800 dollar machine, that just makes no sense to me. So I'll stick with my PC for a while. Maybe it will be fun to convince my friend to buy a PC. Maybe you'll see that next time on my blog :p

Opensource or freeware alternatives to all the software we can't afford

2009-02-15T13:11:00.000-08:00

Let's say you are a web designer you need some software to make your job easier so you need Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium, that's $1699,00! Or Design Premium $1799,00! Or for the 3D designers 3ds max $3495. That's just to much for a piece! Sure, it's great software but $3495 is more than twice my PC! (And I got quite a good PC). Then there are 2 choices: 1. Use pirated software, or 2. Use freeware alternatives. Because choice 1 would get me in trouble I chose 2. So I made a list for all the expensive software I needed.

Photoshop alternatives
Photoshop has more than one alternative GIMP and Paint.NET

GIMP

A graphic editor wich does not look like Photoshop and UI just sucks.

GimPhoto

That's more like it :p

PAINT.net

Illustrator alternative
Inkscape

Flash
Synfig

Dreamweaver alternative
KompoZer

After Effectss alternative
Jashaka

UI seems like as hard as the name itself ( Jahsjaka, ja shaka, jas haka?)

Haha! Take that Adobe! They are going bankrupt in no time! Now let's take down some other companies too.

3ds max alternative
gmax

Ofcourse Blender is seen as world's best free 3d modeler but it doesn't even comes near to how 3ds max looks like. So if you want it to look like 3ds max you should try gmax, howhever it's more for creating game models.

Fl Studio alternative
Linux MultiMedia Studio

Fl studio is probably one of the cheaper audio softwares around but still quite a lot. So there's an alternative Linux MultiMedia Studio, and guess what! It's also availble for windows!

The Firefox Add-ons I use

2009-01-28T00:36:00.000-08:00

Been a long time I posted someting on my blog, huh? So i really needed to update it again and had this lying around as a unfinised concept on my Blogger desk. So i finished itand here is the list in no particular order:

Web Developer Toolbar
Even tough it's a web developer toolbar some tools can be useful for non-developers like; Disable Javascript, cookies and stuff. But most of the tools are just really usefull and timesaving tools for the webdeveloper. Like View CSS, Edit CSS, Disable CSS or outline all kinds of elements like frames and tables or resize window, validate HTML etc. etc. So if you are a web developer you better check this out :p

IE Tab 1.5
Firefox is great but sometimes it just doesn't show the pages right or just blog FF users, you have to copy the adress and past it in Internet Explorer. These days are over! With the IE Tab Add-on, this add-on puts a little button on the right-buttom of your firefox windows which let's you quickly change from Firefox to IE and the same FF window.

Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey is an Add-on wich allows you to get add-ons to all websites! Like for Blogger you already have "Emoticons for Blogger" and "Blogger large post editor" for example. And you can always make you own if you are a bit easy with Javascript. I suggest you to use this with Greasefire wich tells you automaticly if there are any Greasemonkey script for the page you are on. OFCOURSE DON'T JUST ADD ANY SCRIPTS! CAREFULLY CHECK IF THEY AREN'T KEYLOGGER OR HARM YOU IN ANY KIND OF WAY!

Colorzilla
Colorzilla is a small powerfull little tools more usefull to webdevelopers. It allows you to use a pipet on any webpage and shows you the color in HTML color name (white #FFFFFF) or in sRBG (white rgb(255, 255, 255)) allows offers you a colorpicker.

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Hmm, this was the list of worth mentioning Add-ons i use :p Not that long :p But i haven't seen all the Add-ons on the FF database yet so :p There might be an V2 on this post.

How to share folders trough your homenetwork

2009-01-26T09:26:00.000-08:00

A friend asked me last week if it was possible to share a folder trough his wireless network at home. I said yes, he responded "k, but how?" which led to a little tutorial I wrote for him. And i thought "Hey, let's put it on my blog." So here is is(Of course i cleaned it up a little :p):

How to share folders trough your network

Step 1
The first thing to do is to check if you're computer is connected to the right network.

Right click on "computer" in the start menu and select "properties". If the name in the area highlighted on the screen shot below is the same then is probably alright.

Step 2
Now left-mouse button on computer and than on the left you should see "Network" on the list. Click that and Windows Vista will scan the network for the computers on it. And if it's all gone right you should see all the computers on it.

Step3
But that's not all. You only got the computers in your list now but not any folders. To share any folder just right-click on it and select "properties" than click on the tab share and click advanced share. Just tick the box "Share this map" and you are done. To access the folder just repeat step 2 with the computer you want to access the folder. and Click on the computer the folder is on. And you should the the shared folder.

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This tutorial was made on a Vista computer in Dutch language. If there are any wrong translations or just something wrong with my tutorial or if something is unclear please comment and i will we happy to help.

Runes of Magic

2009-01-22T05:43:00.000-08:00

I tried dozens of F2P MMORPG's but they all just felt like those clickediclick Korean Grinding games where you just endlessly click those monsters to gain a level. Runes of Magic isn't like that, it features linear and non-linear quests, Instances and Dungeons, Arenas and Guild wars, Crafting and Gathering system. Pretty much like World of Warcraft except this one if Free2Play and has an unique Dual Class System wich allows you to be both a Mage and a Warrior at the same time!

There are a total of 6 classes in Runes of Magic featuring;

Warrior

You can play as a warrior. With their great strength and skill of using the strongest weapons they can kill anything and anybody from close range.

Warriors are pretty standard in those MMORPG games but are still fun to play because Runes of Magic uses skills just like WoW. You can't win by only clicking the mouse button.

Scout

You can play as a scout. Their cold precision with bow and arrow is the bread-and-butter of their profession. Bloody close range engagements are not meant for them. If it comes down to it, they have enough trumps up their sleeves.

The Scout is like a Ranger which uses bows and crossbows to kill their enemy's from long range distances.

Rogue

You can also play as a deadly Rogue. The Rogue uses the element of surprise to kill their enemy. They silently move to their opponent to blow a huge amount of damage to their victim.

Mage

The mage. The mages use their knowledge of elements to control them and bring their opponent to the ground on long and short range distance. The coolest spells, not the coolest gear.

Priest

You can play as a priest. They use their closeness to god for the good. They assist their fellow adventures with their awesome healing powers and other.

Knight

And the final is Knight. The knight are heavenly armoured and use thgeir strength and healing skills to win any battle. And they have cool gear.

______________________

And the cool thing is all these classes can be combined together with the Dual Class System. You can tacticly be a Warrior/Priest to have the strength of a warrior and the power of a Priest.
There are endless possibilities wich makes raiding, partying and raiding way more fun. However your primary class gets more class-specific skills which makes a Warrior/Scout not the same as a Scout/Warrior.

Also a quite unique feature are the Player Owned Housing system RoM has. The players have the option to get their very own house and decorate it themselves. The house offer several ability's like item storage, crafting in the comfort of your own home and of course throwing a party! In the future people will also have the ability to expand their home. More floor, bigger rooms, attic, basement and everything.

Crafting

Unlike most F2P games RoM has a Crafting feature which allows you to make your own weapons, armors, potions, cloths, furniture and food. Players first gather their ingredients by cutting, picking or mining and than simply craft their items. However you can not be good at anything, you can become craftsmen at 6 professions, expert in 3 and master in only 1.

Instances, Dungeons and the game map
The map of the game is not as big as World of Warcraft's but not as small as those of many other F2P MMO's. Also the maps are pretty nice and clever designed and there are a lot of dungeons and Instances in every map.

So check it out at the Runes of Magic website. It's a 3.39Gb download.

TomTec MP1005 MP3 Player

2008-12-26T02:26:00.000-08:00

Today i want to discuss the TomTec MP1005 MP3 player. The MP1005 is a €40,-($56,15) MP3 player that has touch screen and looks an awful lot like the iPhone, so that's a pretty good deal?

So that's what we are gonna find out. So let's unpack it and turn it on. The menu looks pretty cool and easy and familiar...

As you can see it's able to play music and video's, view photo's and text's. And you are able to record, explore, game and change some settings. Let's check out those last 4 features since there is no music on it yet. These features doesn't require much testing actually. The recording sounds clear and the exploring is easy to use.

The game button brings you to one single tetris game.

And the settings

The setting menu will allow you to change EQ, Recording quality, display backlight time, language, auto power and some other stuff. And now the thing what it's actually made for, the music!

To put music on the MP3 player you can just plug in the USB cable in to your comuter and the mini-USB in you MP3 and you are ready to go.

Nothing special. A clear interface with the basic functions. What i do think is special is the build in speaker on the back of the MP3.

I'm quite surprised about the quality of the videos you can play on this €40,- thing. The photo's are the same quality of course. The only thing i miss in the photo viewer are the zoom and rotate options. And the text viewer is nothing special too. It can only shows .txt files, but who buys a MP3 player for reading e-books?

accessories

With this MP3 you get some earphones, a USB cable and a charger. The earphones are nothing special and feel a little bit cheap but i do think the charger is quite cool.

There is no cable on the charger because you have to put in the USB cable to charge.

All in all this is best Mp3 i ever had so far. The first impression is good the the built in speakers and all. The only thing that is kind of weird is that TomTec the brand of this Mp3 player doesn't even have a website! But they do have a free to call service number.

Good:

Cheap! (€40,- or $56,15)
2.4" touchscreen!
Built-speakers
Looks like iPhone
Good sound, video
TF Card(MicroSD) slot!

Bad:

Looks like iPhone
No website
Only one game
Pretty basic photo, text viewer

What to do with your old dvd burner

2008-12-20T08:16:00.000-08:00

That's easy! Turn it into a burning laser!

This is one of the more dangerous DIY stuff. This tutorial shows you how make your own burning laser out of a DVD burner.

CAUTION: DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY INTO THE LASER OF TROUGH ANY REFLECTIONS! ALSO DO NOT USE A CD BURNER FOR THIS!(THESE HAVE INVISIBLE LASERS, AND CAN BURN YOUR EYES WITHOUT YOU KNOWING IT!). I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOURSELF NOR ANYTHING!

[SOURCE: Instructebles.com]

More DIY stuff later!

Google Chrome

2008-12-05T01:59:00.001-08:00

Good

Application shortcuts
Fast
Minimalistic design
Crash control

Bad

No add-ons
Spyware (rumors)
Minimalistic design

I'm sure we all have seen or heard about google's new application "Chrome". "Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier". At first I thought google was trying to compete against Firefox which isn't easy because of Firefox functionality and the thousands of add-ons to extend. That why I downloaded it and check what kind of new things it offers.

As says on the page Chrome offers "sophisticated technology" so let's compare these technology with the one f

One box for everything
Web search. Web history. Address bar. Suggestions as you type. One unified box serves all your browsing needs. Thats the first thing google mentioned. It works really easy just type in a word if Chrome can find it in your history it goes to that site, if not it googles the word. Firefox also have this feature and it work quite the same.

Chrome

Firefox

New tab page
The send feature Google mentions is "New tab page". Every time you open a new tab, you'll see a visual sampling of your most visited sites, most used search engines, and recently bookmarked pages and closed tabs. Hey! Firefox doesn't have this feature so 1-0 for Chrome right? No not exactly, a quick search in Firefox's add-on database results in a similar add-on called Speed-dialer which shows your favorite pages in the same layout as Chrome.

Chrome

Firefox

Application shortcuts
Another feature Firefox doesn't have is the Application's shortcut. Use web apps without opening your browser. Application shortcuts can directly load your favorite on line apps. This means you can open your favorite web application or website without the GUI of a browser. This is a pretty neat feature that firefox doesn't have and i couldn't find an add-on right away. So 1-0 for Chrome!

Dynamic tabs
Google also have Dynamic tabs! It sound cooler that is actually is. This means you can drag tabs out of the browser to create new windows, gather multiple tabs into one window or arrange your tabs however you wish -- quickly and easily. Firefox has the arranging part not the dragging out for a new windows part. Also with Firefox it doesn't look so smooth. Further this feature is not that interesting so we'll go on.

Crash control
This feature is cool and we need Firefox to have this really quick. Google says that every tab you're using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won't take anything else down. If it really does work yay! for Chrome!

To bad i couldn't test this feature because i don't know a website wich crashes my browser. But i don't really think it will work mostly the website causes the whole application to a crash and if this isn't the case with Firefox I don't know.

Incognito mode
When you are browsing in Incognito mode your leave no traces so you can easily visit your secret websites! Again a cool feature firefox doesn't have... by standard, the add-on "Stealther" does exactly the same.

Safe browsing
Not a very existing function. This function generates a warning page if you enter a phishing or a virus infected site. Firefox has this feature too and also IE7 I think. I did my best but i couldn't find a phishing or an infected site so i don't have a screen shot of the page.

Instant bookmark
This one is just to make the list look longer i mean c'mon? Every browser has this. They even all have stars to do it. So maybe more luck on the next one.

Import settings
Another list extender. Every browser has this.

Simpler downloads
And the final sophisticated feature is the downloads, they open as little bars at the bottom of the browser.

An add-on for firefox does this too.

Conclusion
After checking and comparing all features of Chrome with Firefox I changed my mined. Google isn't trying to compete with Firefox and if you think about it why should they, they are partners. I think they are trying to beat Internet Explorer which is also a hard job because IE comes with windows. Chrome is a simple clean browser which could beat IE6 easily. Personally i think Chrome could beat IE7 and IE8 too. For the slower computer Chrome is a good alternative to IE6 but Firefox's standard aren't that high either. Anyway, this browser does what is has to do.